Posts filed under Midori

The Midori MD Notebook (A5 Gridded): A Review

(Susan M. Pigott is a fountain pen collector, pen and paperholic, photographer, and professor. You can find more from Susan on her blog Scribalishess.)

The Midori MD Notebook is an A5-sized, 88 page (176 pages front and back) notebook with cream paper. I couldn’t find the actual paper weight on the Midori site, but they describe the paper as

"provid[ing] a fine balance between a slight catch on the paper when writing and a smooth writing feel. With this paper, you can enjoy the sensation of writing."

After writing on this notebook for a couple of weeks, I completely agree with that description.

The MD Notebook is packaged in a clear cellophane package. The notebook is wrapped in slightly opaque paraffin paper that you can remove or leave on for protection. I have a thing about the texture and crinkly sound of paraffin paper, so I’m keeping my notebook wrapped.

The notebook is bound in cardstock (though Midori is careful to say that this is not a cover—it’s more like the end pages you would find in a hardbound book. The notebook pages are bound using the traditional thread-stitched method. This allows the book to open completely flat.

In minimalistic fashion, the binding and stitching can be seen through the cheesecloth tape on the spine. This would normally be hidden underneath a hardbound cover. It really is quite beautiful. You can even see the book ribbon through the tape.

I chose the gridded version of the MD Notebook, but they also come in blank and 7mm lined. The gridded lines are 5mm, and there are tiny dots along the margins marking every 10 squares on the long edge and 10 and 5 squares long the top edge. This allows you to count characters if you like, or use the dots to create even grids.

I tested my MD Notebook in several different ways. I tried it with different pens and inks writing alphabets. It handled all three pens and inks perfectly with no bleed-through. The writing does show through the paper slightly, but I couldn’t get a good photo of it.

*Top: Wahl-Eversharp Decoband with Kyo-Iro Moonlight ink, Middle: Pilot Custom 92 with Iroshizuku Shin-Kai ink; Bottom: Conid Minimalistica with Diamine Purple Pazzazz*

One of the things I love about grid paper is the fact that you can write on it either in portrait or landscape. So, next I created a to-do chart for my Fall classes. The gridlines make it easy to create columns and checkboxes.

Next, I tested the paper with all of my currently-inked pens, a gel pen, and a rollerball. Again, no complaints. All the inks performed well.

Then I wrote a test page using the Emancipation Proclamation for text. I found the 5mm grid size to be too small for my usual handwriting. That’s probably because I’ve gotten accustomed to 7mm lines in my journal. For people who print or write using fine nibs, the size should be adequate. By the way, if you read the quote carefully (please don’t) you’ll see that I totally muffed it up. My eyes skipped an entire paragraph, so I’d make a horrible scribe.

I also did some ink swabs to see how the paper handled thick, wet ink. Once again, it aced the test. No bleedthrough at all.

The MD Notebook paper is really, really nice. I’m a Tomoe River Paper fan, but I must say, this MD Notebook is giving my Seven Seas Journal a run for the money. Both kinds of paper are fountain-pen friendly. Both papers come in creamy colors. Both papers are bleed-resistant. Both display sheeny inks well.

*Hobonichi Cousin Tomoe Left; MD Notebook Right*

The main difference between the two is Tomoe River Paper feels much thinner and smoother. MD Paper is thicker, and it has some tooth to it. That’s not to say that the paper is rough or catches your nib. It just provides more feedback.

You can purchase the Midori MD A5 Notebook Gridded at JetPens for $14.00. They also carry the blank and lined versions. If you want a sleek cover for your MD Notebook, you can get a goatskin cover for $84.00.

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Posted on August 18, 2017 by Susan Pigott and filed under Midori, Notebook Reviews.

Midori Spiral Ring Notebook B7 Elephant Review

(Sarah Read is an author, editor, yarn artist, and pen/paper/ink addict. You can find more about her at her website and on Twitter.)

Midori always rocks the vintage minimal elegance. Those of us who like our analog tools to give us a sense of timeless utility are going to dig the Midori aesthetic. That being said, I think this little beauty is misnamed as a notebook. The Midori B7 Elephant is more of a sketchbook, I've found.

When I first opened this up and started playing with it, I really disliked it. The paper is very thick, like a hearty index card, but it doesn't take ink that well. There's quite a lot of feathering with fountain pens, and the paper is fibrous enough that fine-pointed gel and rollerballs feel snaggy. There are also only 20 sheets of paper. For me, that's a single-serving notebook. And when it comes to notebooks, I want the whole pie. Also true for actual pie.

What does work well in this wee book? Ballpoint pens were okay. Paint soaked into the paper fibers too much--even with paint liner pens. Pencils, colored pencils, and pastels worked the best. Suddenly, the 20 cardstock pages made much more sense--this is a sketchbook. And so the ugly duckling realized he was really a beautiful swan.

As a pocket sketchbook, it's pretty great. The cardboard cover is sturdy and folds over neatly or lays flat. The brass spiral coil is the most durable I've encountered and promises to hold up to some rough carry without getting smooshed and distorting the whole book. I do wish the sheets were perforated--the heavy paper and thick wire make page removal difficult and messy.

This particular model is the Elephant and has grey paper. A wee elephant is stamped into the corner of the cover. The Polar Bear has white paper and the Camel has brown. The books come in other sizes as well--B6, A5, and A6 in both horizontal and vertical binding orientations. This B7 is perfect for a back pocket or to slip into a day pack for an afternoon of sketching adventures.

I'm glad I kept playing beyond my initial impression of this book. But it does serve to illustrate how important a product's name is when it comes to customer expectations. I maintain that it's a dreadful notebook! A person who is new to the Midori brand who is looking for a notebook and who purchases this based on the Midori reputation may find themselves disappointed. I suspect wandering sketchers will find it to be a pocketful of joy.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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Posted on October 27, 2016 by Sarah Read and filed under Midori, Notebook Reviews.

Midori Camel Spiral Ring Notebook Review

A few times a year I pick out a product from JetPens that I think is one thing and ends up as not at all what was in my head. I’m bad at reading descriptions apparently. Most of the time it works out just fine because I am a stationery junkie and like almost everything. Additionally, it forces me to go outside of my comfort zone, which is a great position to be in when it comes to reviews.

The Midori Camel Spiral Ring Notebook is a kraft cover stock spiral bound notebook, or so I thought. It is also a kraft paper on the inside notebook, which I didn’t consider when selecting based on the title of the product alone. Turns out, this kraft paper is pretty great.

When I think of craft paper my mind immediately jumps to a paper bag. The surface of paper bags aren’t smooth, and if you have ever experimented writing on one you know they are porous and soak up ink. The paper in this Midori is not that at all. It is smoother than you think (although not dead smooth like standard Rhoda paper for example), and the ink performs far better than I anticipated with little to no bleed or feathering.

It was a given in my mind that I would test this paper with the Uni-ball Signo UM-153 white gel ink pen. It is tailor made for an application like this. The 1.0 mm line is thick and looks awesome. And since it was a gel ink pen there is little to no chance it would feather or bleed through the page.

What I wasn’t so convinced of was using liquid inks like found in rollerballs, brush pens, and fountain pens. I thought the brush pens would go right through the page, but they didn’t come close to doing that. Both of the Kuretake brush pens I tested were great, and might be the ideal pen for this notebook. No feathering at all from either. The Schmidt P8126 roller came close to bleeding through the page. I could tell it was getting into the fibers, but the ink never made it through the back.

Fountain pen inks behaved well, with the Califolio Andrinople from a medium stub nib being the only one showing the slightest bit of feathering around the edges. And that only occurred as it dried. When I was writing I didn’t see it at all. The lone negative is that it wasn’t smooth enough for me to use my XXF fountain pen nibs comfortably, but that is an outlier. Otherwise, this kraft paper exceeded every expectation I had for it.

The only thing left for me to determine is how to use the Midori Camel. It feels like purely a sketchbook at this point. I wouldn’t choose it for notes or journaling, but for drawings and sketches it is ideal, especially with easy rotation into landscape mode.

The A5 Slim size in this review contains 80 sheets for $14, and the smaller A6 Slim has the same amount of sheets for $10.75, both from JetPens.com.

(JetPens provided this product at no charge to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)

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